Lee Really Wanted to See Frost/Nixon

It was a cold and icy morning and we all just can not stand sitting at home. I told Lee he had a choice, stay home and watch the Giants football game or go into Manhattan to see Frost/Nixon. He chose the latter. It seems strange that a 20 year old who was not yet born during the Watergate era would have a fascination with Tricky Dick. It actually comes from Jeopardy. Whenever his name comes up in a question or answer Karen and I yell out Nixon. This movie came out several weeks ago, but it has not played in our local multiplex or even in Queens. So we saw it at the Regal Theater complex on 8th Avenue and 42nd Street.

The acting was suburb with the diction of Nixon and Frost being recreated perfectly. In my opinion the entire Watergate mess could have been avoided if Nixon had taken responsibility and fired his entire campaign staff right after the burglary.

William Zantzinger, Villain in a Bob Dylan song dies

CHARLOTTE HALL, Md. – William Zantzinger, a wealthy Maryland landowner whose fatal beating of a black barmaid was recounted in a Bob Dylan protest song of the 1960s, was buried Friday. He was 69.

Zantzinger died Jan. 3. His family did not provide further details of his death, the Brinsfield-Echols Funeral Home said.

The tobacco farmer served six months and was fined $500 for manslaughter in 1963 for striking the 51-year-old barmaid with his cane for taking too long to serve him a drink. Hattie Carroll later died of a stroke. In the "Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," Dylan criticized different standards of justice meted out to whites and blacks.

Zantzinger was allowed to delay the start the sentence two weeks so he could harvest his tobacco crop and served the time in the Washington County jail, working in its kitchen.
"There is something wrong with this city when a white man can beat a colored woman to death and no one raises a hand to stop him," the Rev. Thomas C. Jackson said in his sermon at Gillis Memorial Church the Sunday after Carroll's death.

News accounts at the time said Zantzinger had been seen drinking with his wife at a dinner before a ball. While dining, Zantzinger told jurors he began hitting waitresses with the cane.
"I'd been smacking — tapping — waitresses on the tail, and they didn't say anything. I was just playing," Zantzinger told the jury in Hagerstown, where the case was tried.
"I had no other purpose than to have a good time," Zantzinger testified. "The last thing I intended was to harm or injure anyone. I never even thought about it."

Zantzinger, who later became a foreclosure auctioneer, didn't answer questions about Dylan's song for years. In 2001, he spoke with Dylan biographer Howard Sounes about the singer, saying he "should have sued him and put him in jail. (The song is) a total lie."

Larry Jenkins, a publicist for Dylan, said the songwriter was not available for comment.

Gran Torino - Good Movie for a Snowy Day

It was another nuisance snowstorm today in the Big Apple. The forecast is for about 3 inches of snow, enough to cause inconvenience, but not enough to close things down. There were basketball games at CW Post and Queens College, but I decided to leave the car in the gargage and walk to the multiplex to see Gran Torino, the latest Clint Eastwood movie. Clint produced, directed an acted in this film about an elderly man living in a poor section of Detroit. I have seen several, but not all of his films over the years. Highly recommended.

Happy Birthday Joan Baez

Joan Baez who celebrated her 68th birthday is still very active doing concerts and issuing CDs. The photo above is of her with Bob Dylan apparently during the Rolling Thunder Revue tour of the mid 1970s. Dylan and Baez collaborated in the early 1960s and perhaps were romantically linked for a while.

The Bob Dylan - Elvis Presley Connection

Nobody knows if Bob Dylan ever met Elvis Presley. However I am aware of two Dylan songs that Elvis covered:

• Tommorow is a Long Time
• Don't Think Twice It's Alright

The King did justice to those two Dylan songs.

25 Random Things about Me

There is a thread on Facebook about this, so I'll post here which will be imported into Facebook anyway. I'll try to think of things that are not obvious.

1. I actually was born in Brooklyn but moved to Queens when I was 2 years old.
2. I was named for my grandfather Baruch Wagman.
3. I went to P.S. 139 Queens
4. I lived near the Woodhaven Blvd. subway station in Rego Park, Queens
5. My father was a manager of a woman's clothing store.
6. I went to JHS 190 also known as Russell Sage Junior High School
7. I was a terrible athelete. I used to cry when the kids didn'twant to play ball with me.
8. Only July 15, 1957 I went to Ebbets Field to see the Dodgers beat the Braves 20-4.
9. Right now I am listening to Outlaw County on XM/Sirius Radio.
10. Today we had our annual reference retreat.
11. My favorite TV show of all times is Car 54 Where are You?
12. My favorite TV show of the 70s was All in the Family.
13. When I was a chemistry student, I hated thermodynamics.
14. I had a perfect 4.0 index as a student of library and information science.
15. I just said goodnight to my son Lee.
16. I am listening to the Bob Dylan song Idiot Wind on Outlaw Country.
17. My favorite saying is "Is there anything else for the good of the order?"
18. I dislike people who talk too much.
19. On a work day I wake up at 6:10 AM
20. I wish New Jersey Transit could devise a more modern and efficient method of collecting fares on the trains.
21. Tom Seaver is my favorite Met player or all time.
22. Mickey Mantle is my favorite Yankeer player of all time.
23. I just hate spreadsheets.
24. I hate people who compile meaningless statistics
25. The lowest point in my life was the two years I lived in New London, CT.

Citifield - We Will Be There

For several seasons we bought 7 game packages for games at Shea Stadium. Today I bought a 15 game package for the new Citifield. We will be sitting in the upper deck just past 3rd base. The seating capacity for Shea Stadium was 57,000 while Citifield only has 45,000 seats which will obviously create a big demand for tickets. The only plans that are available are for 15 games, 40 games or the entire season. We picked a plan for 10 Saturdays and 5 games during the week. We paid $920 which meant about $20/ticket per game which is not too bad since the fans have to pay the big player salaries. I can always sell tickets to friends if there is a game or two that I can't make.

I think this situation is unfair to people who just may want to go to a few games each season. I don't know how many seats will be available on a single game basis. Anyone can use a service like Stub Hub and sell tickets for a big profit. It is only illegal to sell tickets near the venue, so fans may have to pay big bucks for tickets.